ASCLEPIADACE^: 349 



bud. Anthers small sessile, free of the stigma with 

 tufts of hairs on the corolla above and below, com- 

 pletely closing the throat. Style slender, stigma larger. 

 Disc a large yellow ring. 



PLUMERIA ALBA the Frangipani (fig. 27, p. 142), 

 and P. ACUTIFOLIA (fig. 26) the Pagoda tree are well 

 known. They are deciduous, and flower before or 

 with the new leaves. The branches are very thick and 

 the leaf-scars large. Latex copious. 



ASCLEPIADACE^: 



Examples : 



CALOTROPIS GIGANTEA, Br. a very common plant 

 growing in waste places, on the seashore, on dust 

 heaps near villages, on almost any kind of soil and 

 in almost any bit of uncultivated land on the. plains 

 of India. 



It is a shrub with rather soft round (terete) branches 

 and opposite almost sessile, oblong-ovate, entire, rather 

 fleshy leaves. The whole shoot, except the flowers* 

 is covered over with a peculiar white or yellowish 

 powder or fluff, which comes off very readily when 

 touched, and a thick white sticky juice ooses out if 

 a branch is broken or a leaf plucked. 



The flowers are in terminal, irregular umbels, of 

 a cymose nature, and white or purplish in colour. The 

 sepals small about one-eighth inch long, and forming 

 a five-lobed stellate calyx. The corolla (not enclosed 

 by the calyx except in the very youngest stages) 

 monopetalous, but deeply divided into five oblong- 

 ovate or triangular segments, very smooth on the outer 

 side, velvety on the inner. 



